I tried kite racing yesterday, and there's a few really good guys, 4-5 good, 4-5 ok, then me. I've never raced before...

Point: saw a few different foil kites, which are rare here. The Soul is an impressive looking kite, it's beautiful. There as a 12 and 15 in the air. But at same time, it's not monkey proof. saw them in the water or bow tied: yes, due to pilot error in light wind.
The F1 DIABLO is super looking and there was several Ok guys on them and they had them in the air the whole time.
The good and really good guys had Sonic FR, Vmg, F1.

Had my first session on my new Soul 8m. Man the kite is damn fast and drifts much nicer than my Soul 15m. Could land a jump towards the kite with speed and it held its shape extremely well. I’m use to flying my 15 pretty over powered so the hangtime wasn’t as good but I was in only 15-17 kts. Was able to loop the kite, nothing serious but was amazed that it was fast enough to still catch me. Damn good little kite.

Had my first session on my new Soul 8m. Man the kite is damn fast and drifts much nicer than my Soul 15m. Could land a jump towards the kite with speed and it held its shape extremely well. I’m use to flying my 15 pretty over powered so the hangtime wasn’t as good but I was in only 15-17 kts. Was able to loop the kite, nothing serious but was amazed that it was fast enough to still catch me. Damn good little kite.

I watched a 30 minute drift and self rescue of a Soul 15m yesterday. He had been foiling in about 5 knots and his luck ran out. When he got to the beach he had the kite folded in half. Dragged it up on the beach. ZERO f'ing water in it....just dragged it up and laid it out to dry. "Dragged" is even a silly word....he picked it up (as it was still largely full of air) Astounding!